Frequently Asked IR Questions

“K” LINE Outline and Management

“K” LINE has been performing throughout the international community as a global shipping and logistics company. Its core business lies in shipping through the operations of a large number of ships all around the world, and expanding to terminal business and logistics business.
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As well as other major international shipping companies headquartered in Japan, “K” Line deals with a wide range of transportation business in accordance with customer demand. This includes Container Business for transporting consumer goods such as electrical appliances and apparel; Bulk Carrier Service to carry coking coal, iron ore, woodchips/pulp, etc.; Car Carrier Service for motor vehicles; Energy Transportation including LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas), Thermal Coal, Oil and Oil Products; Offshore Support Vessels (OSV) which involve in cargo shipment to production and drilling facilities such as offshore oil and gas fields, and anchor hoisting and tug boat operations when moving such facilities; and Global Total Logistics Service. On the other hand, most reputable overseas shipping companies tend to concentrate on a single category in marine transportation. Full range service in shipping, however, is characteristic of major Japanese carriers.

The ratio of marine transport business within “K” Line’s total company revenue is comparatively high, and in this segment we intend to expand business segments of Bulker & Car Carrier, Energy Transportation, and Logistics where we can generally expect to secure more stable profit.

We aim at expanding and/or strengthening our business opportunities through closer and more direct access to markets via the network of our group companies, both globally and domestically, to provide the most suitable service for each customer. We are developing greater earning capacity and growth of power on the principle of a smaller number of employees but with a more efficient operation. For guidance, we do not operate any Cruise Ships, but do have Ferry Service operated by Kawasaki Kinkai Kisen Kaisha, Ltd.

“K” LINE Group established the new midterm management plan “K” LINE Vision 100. With drastic changes in the recent business environment surrounding the “K” LINE Group and financial targets for the fiscal year 2008 being achieved a year ahead of the schedule, the “K” LINE Group newly established the consolidated midterm management plan “K” LINE Vision 100 covering the period from April 2008 to March 2012 towards the 100th anniversary of “K” LINE in 2019.

“K” LINE Vision 100 advocates "Synergy for All and Sustainable Growth" as its main theme and has set up five basic management issues toward the synergy with all the “K” LINE Group’s stakeholders and the sustainable growth as well as the 100th anniversary vision, including activities to promote the priority management issue of environmental protection. Based on these, profits planning and financial targets for 4 years from April 2008 to March 2012 have also been established.
Please refer to the column of management plan for further details of “K” LINE Vision100.

Corporate Social Responsibility

We have the Board of Directors and Board of Auditors assume the responsibility for development, execution and oversight of the corporate governance system. We are also trying to make the system more perfect in cooperation with various committees and other bodies.

Introduction of an executive officer structure was resolved at Annual Shareholders’ Meeting for Fiscal 2006 held on 26 June 2006.
We now have 15 directors, 5 corporate auditors (3 of them are external corporate auditors), and 23 executive officers.Board of Directors and Corporate Auditors.

We have dedicated ourselves to complying with the Company’s Standards of Ethics, established in April 2001, and have set up a system for risk management by appointing staff to be in charge.

We are disclosing our consolidated financial status every quarter. This frequency of disclosure started from 3Q of Fiscal 2002.

We have reinforced our IR-related organization to perform timely and exact disclosures in relation to management information about the “K” LINE Group.

On July 1, 2004, Internal Audit Office was set up for the purpose of further development and reinforcement of corporate governance.

We are trying to arrange for the best internal system in order to fully comply with the “Law on Protection of Personal Information” that entered into effect in its entirety on April 1, 2005.
The Board of Directors has mapped out a direction for personal information protection and relevant in-office regulations, details of which can be seen on our “K” LINE Homepage.Privacy Policy

CSR Division was established on January 1, 2006.
We are aiming to improve our stake-holder satisfaction, suggest outgoing transmission of CSR activities, and add corporate value by way of checking whether division-wise operating activities fulfill their social responsibility and guiding them appropriately.

“K” LINE recognizes preservation of the environment and safety of ship operations as top-priority assignments of management, and has adopted strengthened measures for environmental preservation.

In May 2001, we established “K” LINE Group' s Environmental Policy and ISO14001 certificate was acquired in February 2002.
In accordance with ISO 14001 certification, every effort is being extended to put our environmental management system in order. We are diligently and honestly dedicated to the realization and day-to-day practice of environmentally friendly marine transportation services.
For further information, please click:Environmental ManagementMarine Safety Management

Because most of the company’s revenues is earned in U.S.Dollars, as an international currency, strong Japanese Yen against U.S. Dollar results in negative effect to our income.
For guidance, range of the volatility is mentioned in our quarterly updated “Financial Highlights.”
Click here for Financial Highlights.

Baltic Exchange Dry Index is one index of Dry Bulk cargo market which is issued daily by London-based Baltic Exchange. It doesn't mean that BDI has much effect on company's total performance.

As BDI is an Index of Dry Bulk Cargo, our Dry Bulk Carrier section is therefore affected by BDI. However, as most of our Dry Bulk Carriers are operated under mid/long-term contracts and Dry Bulk Carriers with short-term contracts, they are affected by BDI to some extent. BDI’s influence on our Bulk Carrier Fleet is very limited.
For the above reasons, BDI's impact on our total performance is very small.
Apart from BDI, many factors such as Bunker price, Currency exchange rate, freight market and cargo volume, etc. do have an effect on company’s total performance.